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he extinction of the dinosaurs



A lot of people thinks ( con jugaison) that dinosaurs disappeared when a asteroid hit
the earth in Mexico about 65 millions years ago. It’s the most
widespread explanation. The crater is there. It’s 180 km in diameter ( ou on peut dire 180km wide) .
Specialists suggest that the impact formed a cloud of dust called
“nuclear winter”. This cloud would stopped the plants
photosynthesizing. Then animals starved to death.

But it’s possible that it was false ( le dire autrement en passant par un modal " may" + negation....) . Professor Sankar Chatterjee has
found another crater called Shiva. Shiva is bigger than the Chicxulub
crater in Mexico. Shiva is 500km in diameter (idem) . The explosion that caused
it may have been 100 times the size of the one that created Chicxulub.

Dr Chatterjee presented his lasted (voc, il faut passer par la forme superlative) findings on Shiva to the annual
meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland on October
18th. He explains that he discover (conjugaison) an underwater mountain called Bombay
High of (erreur de préposition) the coast of Mumbai. This mountain measures 5km from sea bed to
peak. It is surrounded by Shiva crater rim. It was formed when the
dinosaurs disappeared. Sankar Chatterjee says that no force other than
the rebound from an impact could have produced this mountain so
quickly. And this powerful impact certainly smashed the ecosystems
around the world.



In fact, paleontologists have really never been agree ( calque du français, construction de ' to agree' à revoir + position de 'never')  on the cause of
the mass extinction of the Cretaceous. One confounding factor is that
the late Cretaceous was also a period of great volcanic activity. In
India, was (conjugaison de 'to be', regardez votre sujet est pluriel...., attention  aussi à ne pas faire d'inversion sujet verbe comme en français => calque) discovered large fields of basalt called the Deccan Traps.
These fields were created by eruptions. Before the discovery of
Chicxulub, specialists thought that these eruptions were the cause of
the dinosaurs extinction. After its discovery, we (pronom sujet) thought that these
eruptions didn’t cause the death of the dinosaurs, but they weakened
the biosphere before the Chicxulub impact.

There are also anomalies in the pattern of extinction. The first of
these is that the sensitive animals like birds, turtles and frogs
survived at (préposition)  this horrible impact. Moreover, studies show that many
Cretaceous species disappear both before and after the impact.

Ironically, it was while he was studying the Deccan Traps that Sanker
Chatterjee came across the evidence for Shiva. First, he discovered
dinosaur nests between lave flows. It was the proof that they were
acclimated at the volcanic activity. Then, about 65 millions years ago,
a layer of lava nearly 2km thick suddenly appears (temps => du récit ici donc.... ;) ) . He wonders then what
have caused this sudden volcanic surge. After he was searching (temps à revoir)  in
different documents, he found that India was the site from a cosmic
collision.



Further examinations show that the crater is rich in shocked quartz and
iridium, minerals that are commonly found at impact sites. Most
important, the rocks above and below Shiva date it to 65 millions years
ago. Sanker think that an object 40km in diameter hit the earth in
Shiva. This Shock would also have caused the breaking of Seychelles
away from India. These islands have long looked anomalous (voc) . They more (position de more) 
look like parts of continents rather than real oceanic islands.

But there is now another question. Why there .is (construction de la question) 
but a single ejecta layer of iridium and shocked quartz around the
world ? One answer might be that the two impacts were simultaneous. The
objects which created Shiva and Chicxulub would be the daughters of a
comet that had broken in space. Other smaller craters in Ukraine were
discovered, these impacts could therefore be connected with Shiva.

Extensive dating research at Chicxulub now suggests that the crater was
created 300 000 years before the death of the dinosaurs, meaning really
should be two ejecta layers (sens?) . That there are not could be explained by
the fact that the accumulation of sediment in most rocks is so slow
that the two layers are, in effect, superimposed.

The final result of these different studies is of a strange set of
coincidences. A period from 300 000 years in geological history is like
a eyeblink for us. The fact that two biggest impacts happened in this
period is incredible. Furthermore, this period coincided with one of
the largest periods of vulcanicity int the pas billion years.



Finally, we can say that is thus just a string of the most bad luck that really killed the dinosaurs.

Voilà il reste sans doute des choses (quoique!) bravo le thème était difficile!

Amicalement

sebastien